Author: admin

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    How Now Brown Budget? The Clock is Ticking

    Byadmin

    As previous posts have noted, Gov. Brown needs a 2/3 vote to put his tax extension proposals – which are an integral part of his budget plan – on the ballot by June. (The current fiscal year ends June 30.) It is unusual for a governor to testify before a legislative committee but he did so yesterday. Most of the testimony was in fact aimed at legislative Republicans who have made no-tax-increase pledges. A video of the testimony from the Sacramento Bee is below. The references to dispensations and vows refer both to the pledges and the governor’s Jesuit background….

  • Pending Patent Suit

    Byadmin

    I received this item from AAUP in the form of an email newsletter. I was unable to find a link on the AAUP website. Since the item may be of interest to those in medicine and other fields in which patent rights can be important, I reproduce the text below: Recently the AAUP filed an amicus brief in support of the ownership rights of thousands of faculty researchers and inventors to their inventive work. The joint amicus brief, filed in collaboration with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and IP Advocate, a nonprofit advocacy group, was submitted to…

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    Little Hoover Now Bigger: Pension Report Released

    Byadmin

    It is going to take awhile to work through the full 100+ page report of the Little Hoover Commission on public pensions. See the previous post on this blog. However, UC is included in the report although much of the attention is on CalPERS, CalSTRS, and other plans. Below is a quote about UC: “The University of California system also maintains its own retirement plan, independent of the parameters set by the state for other pension plans. The state does not contribute directly to the UC pension program. For 20 years, the UC pension plan was funded entirely by investment…

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    Little Hoover is Coming

    Byadmin

    On the left, you see Herbert Hoover as a young child. Relevance? It is reported in today’s Sacramento Bee that the state’s Little Hoover Commission will be issuing a report on public pensions in California. The State Worker: New debate looms on public pensions Feb. 24, 2011, Jon Ortiz Get ready for a new round of debate over public pensions that could shape California’s intensifying budget talks and even wind up putting some sort of rollback on the legislative agenda. The bipartisan Little Hoover Commission plans to release a report today on California’s public pensions, complete with suggested changes. …The…

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    Chancellor: UC Berkeley becoming a federal university

    Byadmin

    Chancellor: UC Berkeley morphing into federal university (excerpts) February 23, 2011 | Louis Freedberg | Californiawatch.org As it gets more funding from the federal government, and less from Sacramento, UC Berkeley is effectively morphing from a state university into a federal university, according to Chancellor Robert Birgeneau. In an interview yesterday, Birgeneau said the transformation will “require us to think through what our role is both in the state and nationally.” He first made the compelling case for applying the “federal” label to California’s most famous public university at a conference organized by the Travers Program in Ethics and Accountability…

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    Gov. Brown Removes Controversial “Stanford Study” Author From CalSTRS Board

    Byadmin

    Readers of this blog will know of the so-called “Stanford Study” which was designed to produce the largest possible estimate of the unfunded liability of the three major state pension funds: CalPERS, CalSTRS, and UCRS. Money & Company blog, LA Times Governor pulls two teachers pension fund appointees (excerpt) February 22, 2011 Gov. Jerry Brown has pulled back two controversial, last-minute appointments made by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to a state teachers pension board. On Dec. 31, Republican Schwarzenegger named Steven Kram, 54, of Los Angeles and Cameron Percy, 26, to the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, a $150-billion pension system.Kram…

  • More Futurology, Courtesy of the U of Wisconsin

    Byadmin

    In a previous blog entry, we noted another Wisconsin story, different from the one playing out in the capital. This one involves an apparent effort by the flagship campus of the U of Wisconsin at Madison to break away from the rest of the system. The issue for UC is whether, under similar budgetary strains, the same pressures will arise here in the future. Insider Higher Ed has further developments today. The full story with links to relevant documents is at http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/02/23/qt#252043 Excerpt: The president of the University of Wisconsin System, along with the president and vice president of the…

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    Harmonic Disturbance: Harman’s Pension Bill Explicitly Includes UC

    Byadmin

    SENATE BILL No. 689 Introduced by Senator Tom Harman (R-Huntington Beach) February 18, 2011 An act to add and repeal Section 7503.1 of the Government Code, relating to public retirement systems. Legislative counsel’s digest: SB 689, as introduced, Harman. Public retirement systems. Existing law requires all state and local public retirement systems to prepare an annual report in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. The bill would, until January 1, 2016, require all state and local public retirement systems to file an annual report with the Legislature, the Department of Finance, and the Legislative Analyst’s Office that would include specified…

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    Update on Faculty Club Status: Vote Coming

    Byadmin

    Readers of this blog know that UCLA has a plan to demolish the current Faculty Center and replace it with a conference center/hotel complex. Information on this issue – apart from prior blog entries – is available at http://facultycenter.ucla.edu/FAQs.htm At that link, you can find pro and arguments concerning the project. Added info is that an Ad Hoc Committee to Save the Faculty Center has petitioned the Faculty Center to hold a vote of the membership on the question: Should the Faculty Center be torn down and be replaced by a Convention Center/Hotel and Faculty Club? Yes or No?Arguments for…